CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan  When a brigade of Marines moved into Helmand Province in 2009, they built a joint training center for Afghan forces aboard their rapidly expanding new strategic headquarters. Now after three years of operation and a surge of basic instruction for newly fielded police and soldiers, Joint Sustainment Academy Southwest is closing down.

As the Marine force in the region dwindled over the last year from a high of about 20,000 toward a target of about 7,000 by October, the training academy at Camp Leatherneck downsized and revamped its program to focus on “training the trainers” – Afghan troops who can teach fellow soldiers or police after the Marines are gone.

Last year the academy had a staff of about 60 Marines and graduated about 2,500 Afghans. After Southern California Marines with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Forward took over in late January with about half the staff, 32, they trained about 600 Afghans in the first five months.

By the end of this year the Marine program will stand down as its resources and curriculum are absorbed into Camp Shorabak, the Afghan base adjoining Camp Leatherneck where the 215th Afghan National Army Corps established in 2010 is headquartered.

The closure of the Marine-run joint training academy makes sense for several reasons, said Lt. Col. Mike Cromwell, 46, of Poway. He took a yearlong break from his job on staff of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing based at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station to serve as director of the academy.

“The Afghans, they are able to do it much more efficiently. They speak the language and they understand the culture. And they have to be able to sustain themselves for the long term. We are just simply not going to be here,” Cromwell said. “So just like we do our own training — the Marines back in the states — the Afghanistan national security forces have to do the same.”

One morning this summer on the academy range, a half dozen Afghan Uniformed Policemen practiced launching grenades from their rifles. After taking his turn blasting rounds at metal shipping containers perforated with bullet holes, 1st Lt. Mohamad Ziya described why he wanted to share his knowledge gained from two years as a policeman and advanced training at the academy.

The Marines are departing, he said. “Once they leave of course I have to, we have to, we don’t have any choice but to train them ourselves.”

The 21-year-old policeman grew up in the brutal era of the Taliban and mujahideen warlords. During his boyhood, he recalled seeing his neighbors beaten, “their eyes gouged out, people skinned alive.” When his family was caught in the crossfire they were forced to flee in the night and live for more than a month in another district.

Serving as a national policeman is a dangerous calling, but Ziya said he does it because of patriotism. “If I don’t come and do these duties, who is going to come and help this country? Who is going to rebuild this country if none of us do our job?” he said.